Windows 10 Update eats 20 GB – How to recover it?

Earlier this month, Microsoft rolled out Windows Anniversary Update for those who are using Windows 10 on their desktops and laptops. It is the free upgrade offered by the company. If you are one of those who utilized it, you might find a reduced disk space after the update.

Windows 10 Anniversary Update adds various features like sync between phone and PC, Extensions support for Edge browser, Windows Ink, etc.

Everything is good, but the Anniversary update wastes approx. 20 GB of disk space on C drive after installation. It is common for any major upgrade because Windows keeps the previous version as the backup on the C drive. If the user wants to rollback to the previous version Windows restores the system from this backup.

For example, a small number of users reports SSD freezing problem after the latest update. Those people can roll out to the earlier build from the Settings menu. If everything is happy for you with the Anniversary update, then you can recover the wasted space in the C Drive by following the below steps.

1. Type “Disk Cleanup” in the Cortana search bar.

2. Select C drive in the next screen

3. Now on the Disk cleanup for C: window, press “Clean up system files” button.

4. Again select C drive and click Ok.

5. In the next screen select “Previous Windows installation(s)” option and press OK

6. Press “Delete Files” in the next screen and finally click “Yes” in the confirmation box.

That’s it; now your C drive has 20 GB additional space than the before available space. For some people, Microsoft automatically deleted the Windows previous build through a recent small patch. If you are one among those, you can’t find any wasted space in system files, and your system is in perfect condition.